Turkey's Killing Machine: The Contra-Guerrilla Force

By Serdar Celik, in Kurdistan ReportNo.17. February/March 1994

How The Force Was Set Up

Turkey joined NATO on April 4, 1952. In the same year, the
organisation known as "Gladio", or officially as "Super NATO",
whose arm in Turkey is the contra-guerrilla force called
Seferberlik Taktik Kurulu (STK - Tactical Mobilisation Group),
started its activities in the building of the CIA organisation
American Yardim Heyeti (American Aid Delegation - JUSMATT) in the
Bahcelievler district of the Turkish capital Ankara. (*1)

During the 1960s, following on from the experience of Korea
and Vietnam, the American-dominated armies of NATO began to set up
their own special guerrilla warfare units. The 1959 military accord
between the Turkish and US governments envisaged the use of the
contra-guerrillas "also in the case of an internal rebellion
against the regime". (*2)

The STK was restructured in 1965 and was renamed Ozel Harp
Dairesi (OHD - Special Warfare Department). It comes under the
authority of the President of General Staff and is also known by
other titles such as Ozel Kuvvetler Komutanlik (Special Forces
Command) or Harekat Dairesi (Operations Department).

Although it was revealed through the "Gladio" affair in Italy
in 1990 that such secret organisations also existed in other member
states of NATO, and that they maintained close contacts with these
countries' secret services and had been involved in a series of
murders and bomb plots, the Turkish military and state authorities
continued to deny the existence of any such organisation in Turkey.

Only after ex-CIA chief William Colby had revealed that "there
is also such an organisation in Turkey" did the Turkish authorities
withdraw their false pretentions that there was no Turkish Gladio.
On December 3, 1990, General Dogan Beyazit, President of the
Harekat Dairesi (Operation Department) of Turkey's General Staff
and General Kemal Yilmaz, commander of the Ozel Kuvvetler (Special
Forces), issued a press statement. In this statement they revealed
that the title of the special NATO organisation in Turkey was Ozel
Harp Dairesi (Special Warfare Department) and that its task was "to
organise rewsistence in the case of a communist occupation". They
further explained that this organisation had fought in Cyprus in
1974 and against the PKK in Kurdistan in 1980, but that its secret
members, whom they called "patriots", had "no connection with the
contra-guerrilla forces" (1). This latter claim is a blatant lie.

The bloody dictator of the September 12, 1980 coup, Kenan
Evren, wrote in his memoirs that Prime Minister Suleyman Demiriel
had in the 1970s written to him of his wish to engage the Special
Warfare Department to deal with civil unrest (2). This was denied
by Demuriel. Bulent Ecevit, another Prime Minister of the 1970s,
revealed that: "As Prime Minister I first became aware of its
existence in 1974 through requests from Semih Sancar, chief of the
General Staff, for money for secret payments to the Special Warfare
Department. I was shocked". (3)

How and why was the Special Warfare Department set up?

The founding aim of the Department is: "In the case of a
communist occupation or of a rebellion, to use guerrilla methods
and all possible underground activities to bring an end to the
occupation." (4) The special war methods which are taught
supposedly for the prevention of a communist occupation include
among others "assasinations, bombings, armed robbery, torture,
attacks, kidnap, threats, provocation, militia training, hostage-
taking, arson, sabotage, propaganda, disinformation, violence and
extortion." (5)

Textbooks by American contra-guerrilla experts were translated
into Turkish, and these special war methods were thus introduced
into Turkey. Some of the textbooks written by American experts are:
"U.S. Army FM 31/16" (contra-guerrilla operations), "U.S. Army
Special Warfare School" (contra-guerrilla tactics and techniques),
"FM 31/20" (special forces operational techniques), "FM 31/21
Special Forces Operations" (ST urban assignments, 31/21 guerrilla
warfare and special forces operations ), "FM 31/21 A. Special
Forces Operations (U)" (special forces secret operations). (6)

The Turkish contra-guerrilla force developed the most complex
and sophisticated methods for its war against the PKK. Since 1985
a series of new textbooks and instructions for the contra-
guerrillas have been published. Just one example is the book "Ic
Guvenlik Konsepti" (The Concept of Internal Security), which was
published by the Special Warfare Command of the General Staff in
1985, and which is used as a textbook in the contra-guerrilla
camps.

The underground elements of the Special Warfare Department -
that is, the elements which carry out actions - are called contra-
guerrillas. The Special Warfare Department can be identified with
the contra-guerrillas, since it is the latter who put the
Department's work into practise.

The Turkish contra-guerrillas have many schools in Turkey, in
which they receive their training - in Ankara, Bolu, Kayseri, Buca
near Izmir, Canakkale and since 1974 in Cyprus. "In the mountain
commando school in Bolu, green berets (Delta Forces) who fought in
Vietnam also got their training". (7)

The contra-guerrilla teams, who are implanted with a fanatical
hatred of the "peril" of "communism" and "separatism", whose heads
are full of chauvanism, are unleashed against anyone who stands in
opposition to the regime. For their goal, which they pursue with
the support of the USA, is "the establishment of a competent
military and semi-military force which will, jointly with the
security forces, maintain internal security". (9)

In their eyes not only the "communists", but each and every
democratic movement is a danger which they aim to counter using
guerrilla methods. The American military doctrine as presented in
the textbooks holds that "our security is threatened not only by
open attacks, but also by other types of threats which are even
more dangerous than open attacks but which do not look like open
attacks. These dangers consist of the attampts to bring about
transformations and changes from the inside." (10)

Selected elements of the Turkish contra-guerrillas together
with the generals were all trained in contra-guerrilla schools in
the USA. The aims of this training are defined as follows: "The
goal of military aid is to educate soldiers from underdeveloped
countries in accordance with U.S. ideology and then to install them
advantageously in the leadership of their countries". (11) During
their training in the USA the contra-guerrilla forces "are taught
about social problems in their countries, and shown films which
demonstrate the aggression and subversion of the communists. They
learn how to handle explosives under the supervision of green
berets in Matamoros near the Mexican border, and they are taught
how to kill, stab or strangle somebody silently, etc". (12). Other
places where Turkish officials are trained are the Escuela de los
Americas in Panama, which is attached to the U.S. base Southern
Comfort, the Police Academy near Washington and the Schongau and
Oberammergau bases in Germany. (*3)

Part of the Special Warfare Department is made up of officers
from official units known as A-units or Special Operations Units.
As the war became more intense, B-units were formed within the
Special Warfare Department, made up of professional volunteer
commando forces. Both types of units employ contra-guerrilla
tactics.

The forces built by the Special Warfare Department have
everywhere formed organisations in the form of cells. These
elements, known as "patriots", are placed in front-line duties by
being infiltrated as agents-provocateurs into political parties,
administrative departments and opposition groups.

The strongest pillar of the Special Warfare Department is the
Secret Service. In Turkey the Secret Service is subordinate to the
General Staff and so also to the Special Warfare Department. The
civilian government has no control whatsoever over the Secret
Service. In Turkey there are various secret services: the MIT
(National Secret Service Organisation) and the Secret Services of
the Gendarmerie, the General Staff, the Foreign Ministry, the
Director of Security (the political police) and the Presidential
Office. These secret services hold quarterly meetings under the
umbrella of the National Secret Service Coordinating Committee.

The MIT has the greatest influence of all these organisations.
This Turkish secret service organisation was originally called MAH
and was restructured and renamed MIT in 1965. The MIT is a branch
of the CIA and collaborates with the Israeli secret service MOSSAD,
the German BND and earlier (up to 1975) with the Iranian SAVAK.
Many operations of the Special Warfare Department are carried out
in collaboration with the MIT. A third of the MIT's functionaries
are members of the armed forces and the rest are mostly retired
military personnel. It is a legal requirement that the chief of the
MIT must be a member of the armed forces. Since the founding of the
MIT, all the heads have been generals. They are appointed by the
General Staff or by the Special Warfare Department. The 1989 budget
of the MIT amounted to 42,745 million Turkish lira. (*4)

Another organisation coming under the Special Warfare
Department is the Psychological Warfare Department. On November 9,
1983 this department became the TIB (Ministry for Social
Relations). Its headquarters are in Ankara. Its first chief was
Dogan Beyazit, who was at the same time also head of the Special
Warfare Department. He was in charge of propaganda operations which
the CIA program divided into "white, "grey" and "black" propaganda.
Many professors were employed within the TIB. (*5)

The TIB has brought out numerous journals and pamphlets and
even comics. It formed satellite organisations under such names as
"The Institute for Research into Turkish Culture", "Turkish World
Research Institute", etc. The main aim of the TIB since the '80s
has been to develop the psychological front in the war against the
PKK.

With this aim in mind, pamphlets are printed which try to
blame the PKK for massacres committed by the contra-guerrillas.
Such pamphlets are distributed in various languages in Europe,
purporting to originate from such ficticious publishers as "the
Union of Anatolian Women". Or else bogus leaflets attacking the PKK
are distributed under the names of existing or ficticious political
organisations. Posters and leaflets are put about which are full of
ridiculous propaganda such as those claiming that the PKK is an
Armenian organisation. Or television programmes and books are
produced which slander the PKK. In the towns of Kurdistan
professors hold seminars about how "Kurds are really Turks" etc.
The most effective institution from the point of view of the TIB -
that is the Psychological Warfare Department of the Special Warfare
Department - is the press. Turkish daily newspapers such as
"Hurriyet", "Milliyet", "Tercumann", "Turkiye" and "Sabah", which
have become semi-official organs of the state, are pressured into
carrying out systematic propaganda against the PKK.

Another area where the Special Warfare Department wields its
influence is of course the political parties. All state politicians
and all bourgeois parties in Turkey are under the control of the
Special Warfare Department. Here are just two examples:

Turkish President Suleyman Demirel was the first Turk to get
a scholarship from the Eisenhower Exchange Fellowship, which is
controlled by the CIA. Later he held for many years the agency
rights for the firm of Morrison, which built the death cells in
Vietnam. (*6) When Demirel was in the USA in 1963, he was sent into
the Adalet Partisi (Justice Party). In 1965 he became the chairman
of this party and is now State President.

Turgut Ozal, who was Prime Minister from 1983 to 1990 and
President from 1990 until his death in 1993, was an official of the
International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Special Warfare Department And Paramilitary MHP

During the 1970s the struggle for democracy was developing in
Turkey. In Kurdistan the struggle for national liberation was
growing. With the help of the MHP (National Action Party), which
was brought onto the scene in the 70s, hundreds of students,
workers, intellectuals, trades unionists and educationalists were
murdered: the president of DISK (the Federation of Revolutionary
Trades Unions) Kemal Turkler, the journalist Abdi Ipekci, Professor
Dr Bedri Karafakiroglu, professors Umit Doganay and Cavit Orhan
Tutengil, Umit Kaftancioglu, State Counsel Dogan Oz, security chief
Cevat Yurdakul, University Professor Orhan Yavuz, Bedrettin Comert,
Server Tanilli (who survived but remained disabled), Chair Adana
Chamber of Agricultural Engineers Akin Ozdemir and hundreds more.
In 1974 in Maras they massacred inumerable Kurdish and Alevi people
- children, women and old folk and men. This preplanned act of
genocide opened the way for the military coup of September 12,
1980.

It is know from the experiences of various countries that the
CIA works together with the police to organize paramilitary groups
in the tactics of irregular warfare. William Colby wrote: "To
prevent Turkey from falling into the hands of the communists, the
CIA gave support to anti-communist institutions". (13) Retired
general Sezsi Orkunt, ex-chief of the General Staff said: "The
Turkish armed forces were more worried about the Left than the
Right. The Right was organised in the MHP and its leader Turkes was
helped on his way". (14) When the MHP's Ankara headquarters were
searched at the time of the 1980 coup, the "Contra-Guerrilla
Assignment 31/15 on the Model Plan for Underground Cells" was found
there. (15) The MHP had obtained this plan from Colonel Mehmet
Alanyuva of the Agents Section of the Special Warfare Department,
the MHP's militants, who were organised in accordance with this
plan, went on to perpetuate a veritable massacre against innocent
people from the opposition.

The CIA also employed the MHP militants for terrorist plots on
an international level. For example, the murderer of the journalist
Abdi Ipekci was the same man who in 1991 carried out the
assassination attempt on Pope John Paul.

The MHP is also organised in Europe, and particularly in
Germany. Until 1976 it was organised there under the same title.
After that in Europe they took on the title Avrupa Ulkucu
Dernekleri Federasyonu (Federation of National Associations in
Europe). The MHP's organisation in Germany maintains connections
with the German Secret Service. The journalist Ugur Mumcu, who was
assassinated in 1993, wrote: "These connections were set up in
Cologne by a German named Kannabin". (16) The MHP has another
patron in Germany - Rudi Nazar. He is a CIA agent who was for many
years active in Ankara and was later transferred to Bonn. Jurgen
Roth went into this matter in detail in his book "Criminals
Incorporated" and came to the conclusion, based on information from
a president of one of the republics of the former Soviet Union,
that the MHP is also involved in the heroin trade in Germany.

General Haydar Saltik, one of those responsible for the
September 12, 1980 coup, later left the army and became Consul in
the Turkish consulate in Berne. He renewed his contacts with the
Turkish nationalists and sent 15,000 officers and MHP militants,
who came under the Special Warfare Department and had already had
a hand in many attacks against the Armenians, to Azerbaijan. After
their training, these militants were sent to Baku. The attacks on
the Kurdish population in Antalya and other Turkish towns during
the past year were also carried out by the MIT and the MHP. The MHP
is still the paramilitary wing of the Special Warfare Department.
This time, however, it was more effective, since the entire state
with all its constituent parts has grown into an even more racist,
anti-Kurdish and paramilitary organisation.

The Operations Of The Turkish Contra-Guerrillas

The bloody work of the Special Warfare Department is so wide-
ranging that we can not go into everything here. We will,
therefore, go straight over to Kurdistan, where the contra-
guerrillas are employed in the front line against the national
liberation struggle. First, however, we would like to recount some
of the decisive points of the decisive points of the contra-
guerrillas' activities prior to 1980:

Agents from the Special Warfare Department threw a bomb into
the house in Thessallonika in Greece which was used as the Mustafa
Kemal Museum, and blamed this act on the Greek police.
Consequently, on the 6 and 7 of September 1955, fanatical groups
fired up by the contra-guerrillas wrecked Greek homes and
businesses in Istanbul.

The most important actions of the Special Warfare Department
were the three military coups. This Department was responsible for
the coup of May 27, 1967 and above all for the last two coups of
the March 12, 1971 and September 12, 1980. The then Foreign
Minister Ihsan Sabri Caglayangil, who was invited to Teheran a few
days before March 12, 1971, learned from the Shah of Iran that
there was going to be a coup in Turkey. (17) The then commander of
the Turkish airforce, Muhsin Batur, went the the USA just before
the coup of September 12, 1980. Again the then airforce commander
Tahsin Sahinkaya flew to the USA and the coup took place two days
after his return. Carter, who was at the opera when he heard about
the coup, called Paul Henze, the CIA agent responsible for Turkey,
and told him: " Your people have just made a coup". (18)

The torture chambers which opened in 1971 gave the contra-
guerrillas an important opportunity to gain practical experience.
The contra-guerrilla generals who took people to the torture
chambers in Ziverbay in Istanbul told their victims for the first
time that they were prisoners of the contra-guerrillas. The
interrogations were carried out by contra-guerrilla specialists
called EBU (Correct Information Officers). A team of interrogation
specialists called the DAL (Deep Investigation Laboratory) was set
up by the political police in Ankara. These torture specialists
murdered or caused permanent damage to hundreds of people. Later
on, these teams were dispatched all over Turkey and especially
Kurdistan. In 1971 the contra-guerrillas' torture was directed by
General Faik Turun, Turgut Sonap and Memduh Unluturk. (*7)

The invasion of Cyprus was an action of the Special Warfare
Department. In 1955 the Department set up a secret organisation
called the Turk Mukavemet Hareketi (Turkish Resistance Movement).
This organisation carried out systematic provocations in Cyprus in
order to prepare the conditions for the 1974 coup. To prepare for
the occupation of Cyprus, teams directed by Hiram Abbas and the
Special Warfare Department established themselves in Beirut, from
where they could organise activities in Cyprus. The Cyprus invasion
was organised by the then chief of the Special Warfare Department
Kemal Yemek. Cyprus was the first serious test for the Turkish
contra-guerrillas. After 1980 Kurdistan took the place of Cyprus in
this respect.

The State Security Courts are a product of the Special Warfare
Department and they are assigned the task of restructuring the
judicial process to fit the demands of the contra-guerrillas. In
accordance with a directive of the contra-guerrillas, the the State
Security Courts aim "not to condemn the defendants according to the
punishments set out for the political crimes, but to administer
punishments as severe as those set out for murder and other crimes
against the person". (19) The detainees were severely tortured and
then came before a contra-guerrilla court. Most of the judges have
come from the military and are therefore tools of the Special
Warfare Department.

The murders and terrorist acts committed by the MHP were
actions of the Special Warfare Department. Their purpose was to
intimidate the opposition and prepare the conditions for a coup.
The Special Warfare Department was successful in this task: on
September 12, they carried out the military coup d'etat. This coup
was the most important action of the contra-guerrillas. All arms of
the state were reorganised on paramilitary lines. The Special
Warfare Department gained control over the underworld (the Turkish
mafia), the press, commerce, the judicial system, parliament, the
universities and all other areas of society. All administrative
organs and laws were restructured along the same lines.

Sources:

1. Interview with the President of the Turkish General Staff Dogan
Gures, "Milliyet" 5/6 September 1992

Notes:

*1 The "Super-NATO" organisation was set up under the control of
the CIA in all the NATO countries. The headquarters of this
organisation was in Brussels and was named the Allied Coordination
Committee (ACC). Secret meetings were held annually in which
delegates from all the member countries took part. The official
purpose of the organisation is "to organise resistance using
irregular warfare methods in case of a communist occupation". The
organisation has at its disposal special funds and weapons depots.
It is not answerable for its activities under the laws of the
individual member states. The organisation's branch in Italy was
called "Gladio", in Germany "Anti-Communist Assault Unit", in
Greece " Hide of the Red Buck", in Belgium "Glavia". The "Super-
NATO" also set up branch organisations in non-NATO countries such
as Austria and Switzerland.

*2 Referring to contra-guerrilla warfare conducted by the USA,
former U.S. Secretary of State McNamara explained that "partisan
wars call for a change in our understanding of warfare. In regions
where partisan war has broken out, what is needed is not a great
number of military units and weapons, but rather small units who
have been well trained in guerrilla and counter-guerrilla tactics
and armed with special weapons".(8) The American Delta Forces, the
British Special Air Service (SAS), the Italian Special Forces
Section and the German GSG-9 are units of this type. The former
U.S. President Johnson declared in 1964 that 344 contra-guerrilla
units had been trained by the USA in 49 countries of the world.

*3 In the 70s the following persons, among others, who still occupy
important positions today, were members of the Turkish police and
secret service: Sekru Balci, Ilgaz Aykutlu, Kenan Koc, Umit Erdal,
Hiram Abbas (who was killed in 1990 [by militants of the armed
communist organization Devrimci Sol, was in the 70s one of the
three most influential persons in the MIT), Mehmet Aymur (Abbas'
right-hand man in the MIT), Hayri Kozakcioglu (who was trained by
Scotland Yard and in 1987 made Governor with Special Powers), Unal
Erkan (at that time Kozakcioglu's successor as "Supergovernor" in
diyarbakir).

*4 Divided among the 55 million people of the Turkish and Kurdish
population, this means 949 Turkish Lira per head that every Turk
and Kurd have to pay in order to finance the "work" of spying,
torture and murder of this gang of killers.

*6 "In 1967 the CIA's budget for the funding of 'useful friends and
elements' abroad was raised to 10 million U.S. dollars per year.
Most of these funds flowed through our trade unions, student unions
and special institutions into foreign institutions. The use of our
trade unions and associations as a sort of screen prevented it from
becoming known that the source of these funds was in reality the
CIA". (Fron the book "CIA, Secret Services and Democracy" by the
former CIA chief Stanfield Turner).

*7 Faik Turun became an MP for the AP (Justice Party) in 1977.
Turgut Sunalp became a minister in parliament in 1982 as a member
of the MDP (National Democratic Party). The retired Memduh Unluturk
was killed by militants of the organization Devrimci Sol
(Revolutionary Left) in 1991.